Two groups duel to represent Mounties
National Police Federation runs certification drive in bid to become bargaining agent
OTTAWA— The RCMP may be set for an old-style unionization war as a new organization has sprung up to compete to be the national bargaining unit for Canada’s Mounties, the Star has learned.
Calling itself the National Police Federation (NPF), the group incorporated last week in order to launch a national certification drive among some 17,000 RCMP front-line policing officers and reservists.
This latest development means two organizations — the NPF and the Mounted Police Professional Association of Canada (MPPAC) — are jockeying to become the bargaining agent as a Liberal bill to allow unionization is rushed through parliamentary committee before May 15.
That’s the extended legislative deadline set by the Supreme Court of Canada, which ruled last year the Mounties have a right to be represented by a bargaining agent that is independent from management.
The unionization drive is shaping up as a competitive race.
Among the new group’s leadership ranks are members of the RCMP’s now defunct staff relations representative program — dismantled suddenly via a Feb. 12 internal memo from the RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson that left Mounties in a labour relations vacuum, and warned them against speaking to media, ministers or MPs about RCMP matters without authorization.
The NPF is also drawing on the ranks of its competition. It counts among its co-chairs a former member of the Mounted Police Association of Ontario’s executive, Sgt. Pete Merrifield. Merrifield is also plaintiff in a high-profile harassment lawsuit against the RCMP. The MPAO was among three provincial associations to successfully challenge the RCMP’s non-unionized labour relations scheme at the Supreme Court.
NPF co-chair Sgt. Brian Sauvé, on leave without pay from his RCMP Vancouver position to organize the certification drive, says the new organization is a “well-researched, professional, credible” group that expects to bring a “balanced approach” to addressing employee concerns.
Chief among them is a surprising change to workplace health and safety coverage that was inserted into the government’s bill to allow unionization. It would direct Mounties injured on the job to provincial worker’s compensation boards — a move projected to save the RCMP millions, but that members say would subject them to a patchwork system of care and unequal standards.
The NPF’s main competition to become the bargaining agent, the Mounted Police Professional Association of Canada (MPPAC), is largely drawn from the Mounted Police Association of British Columbia, also part of the successful Supreme Court challenge. It is now struggling to mount a national drive with its Ontario cousin weighing whether to support the fledgling NPF.
The current president of the Mounted Police Association of Ontario, John White, has agreed to work with an advisory board of the NPF, according to Sauvé.
In an interview, Sauvé said the group also reached out to the Mounted Police Association of Quebec to support its certification drive, and sought help from policing associations across Canada for financial aid to start up an office and sign up about 9,000 Mounties — an effort expected to cost about $250,000, but one that must be mounted with no access to RCMP email lists, or resources.
Time is tight, with just two months for Parliament to enact the new bill, otherwise other public service unions may make a bid to certify as the bargaining agent for Mounties.
The bill says — and Mounties surveyed by the Liberals agreed — that any bargaining unit should be of and for Mounties only. Some fear it would be a conflict for the RCMP to be represented by any other union, which could potentially come under investigation in the future.
The RCMP is the only police force in Canada that is not unionized.
The bill tabled by the Liberals last week would not give a new union the right to strike, and removes disciplinary and resource deployment matters from the bargaining table. It says any bargaining impasses would be resolved through binding independent arbitration.
Contacted by the Star for comment on this story, the RCMP said it could not provide any responses in time for publication.
The MPAO did not return emailed requests for comment.